It wasn't so much because the walls lay in ruins and the temple was all but a charred remains that they cried. It was because all that Jerusalem stood for seemed to have perished too.
Jerusalem: the 'city of peace', which symbolised the peace of God and all the promises of Yahweh was a desolate wasteland. Yes, how they wept.
Now they found themselves living as exiles in a strange land, among a strange people, with strange customs and strange gods. And then the taunts began. 'You Jews are renowned for your singing and dancing. Why don't you sing your songs now? After all you are "God's people",' they would say, sneering. But how could they sing songs of hope and promise, when all hope was reduced to a pile of rubble? No, they would simply hang up their harps and weep.
